RTFM coffee mug

“Hello!” A perky voice chirped over Evan’s shoulder. “May I come in?”

It was unbearably early in the morning. Evan had yet to get into any sort of programming groove, and so swiveled away from his computer without difficulty. At the threshold of his cube waited a sunny young morning person he’d never seen before. Beside her rested a re-purposed overhead projector cart. Instead of AV equipment, it bore dozens of shiny new coffee mugs.

“Hi! My name’s Kelly.” Beaming, she stepped forward and offered the mug in her hands. “A little treat from the Marketing team! We’re celebrating the creation of a new recruitment bonus program!”

Bleary-eyed and far less enthusiastic, Evan took the proffered mug. Harsh florescent lighting glared off its glossy surface, which read:

Take A <b/>

“Cute, huh?” Kelly asked.

Evan managed a limpid half-smile, and nearly dropped the mug alongside the other glorified dust-magnets in his cubicle, before something made him do a double-take. “That’s the wrong tag.”

Kelly frowned in confusion. “What?”

“There’s a typo,” Evan said. “You wanted ‘Take A Break,’ right? That should be B-R-slash, not B-slash.” He pointed to the mug for emphasis. “Right now, it says ‘Take A Bold.’”

“Are you serious?” The smile vanished from Kelly’s face. Her eyes went wide.

“Yeah,” Evan said.

“Really?”

“Serious.”

“Really?” Kelly bit her lip, but her eyes betrayed her mirth. “Oh my goodness. You have no idea how many meetings we had. This slogan got batted around everywhere, up down and sideways, and no one ever said anything about that!”

How many developers were at those meetings?” Evan asked. The company offered hundreds to choose from.

“None. This was all within Marketing.” Kelly giggled freely. “This is everywhere! We’ve got posters, t-shirts, pens…!”

Evan joined in her laughter. “Of course. Printing promotional materials is our core business!”

“Don’t tell anyone else about this, OK? I’m kinda curious to see how long it goes before someone else brings it up.” Kelly returned to her cart and pushed it away, still red-faced and giggling. “Have a good one!”

Heh, typical. How often did Marketing ever vet anything with IT, or even think to? Evan couldn’t even think of any marketers or computer folk who had regular social contact with one another.

Well, maybe that’s about to change, he thought with another smirking look at his new mug. The two teams could bond over some nice coffee bolds.

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